


Archaic

by EllaPenny



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:47:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26455885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllaPenny/pseuds/EllaPenny
Summary: Year 6 AU. A hundred generations ago, a Potter ancestor placed what he thought was a harmless blood-borne curse on himself and his descendants. A prophecy foretelling the contents of this curse is recovered just in time for Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape to watch as the same ill-fated story unfolds yet again, this time entangling (you guessed it) the only remaining Potter boy, the Gryffindor princess and a cold and contemptuous Slytherin Pure-Blood.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

Severus Snape strode ominously into the Department of Mysteries. The Potter boy had escaped certain death at the hand of the Dark Lord once again, although he wasn't entirely sure he was surprised this time. Potter had evaded losing his life on so many occasions in his short time at Hogwarts that Snape wondered if he hadn't already broken some kind of record. It seemed almost absurd, given his utter lack of ability, sense, intelligence, or anything else that might have kept him alive up until this point, although, to give credit where credit is due, the boy did have a rather accurate knack of choosing friends. Dumbledore was very fond of him, and the Granger girl was certainly not lacking brains. He briefly wondered if the very recent death of his immensely irksome godfather, Sirius Black, would affect his personality or motivations for knowledge at all, but decided it was too optimistic a possibility.

In the aftermath of the fight that had occurred only hours earlier, the only possible way to the back of the room was around the mass destruction that the Weasley girl's _Reducto_ spell had inflicted. Occasionally one live prophecy among the thousands of dead prophecies would finally fall from its precarious position and break, muttering nonsensical words into the abyss that was the Hall of Prophecies, but Severus's mind was fully occupied by his task, and he paid no attention.

The eerie blue glow that resonated off of the shiny black walls and ceiling gave an ethereal look to the place, only adding to the uneasy and mystical vibe it radiated, and Severus's footsteps echoed through the cavernous hall as if several ghosts had decided to walk with him. He had a single-minded determination to find one prophecy in particular, to know whether or not it had been destroyed along with so many thousands of others. It would be impossible to determine the amount of irreplaceable history had been obliterated by one stupid schoolgirl's inexperienced wave of a wand. Finally, after what had felt like hours to Severus, he found the row of prophecies that he had been searching for. Thankfully, the spell's reach had fallen only a few metres short of hitting it too, and Severus had almost sighed out loud with relief. Almost.

There, around fifty metres into the row, he found it. The prophecy glowed as brilliantly as ever, blissfully unaware of the annihilation of the room, with white, claw-like smoke curling over itself again and again under the thick warped glass. Pulling his long black sleeve back slightly, Severus reached his pale hand out and touched it, before pulling it carefully from its ornate holder. Holding it as if he would a new-born baby, he gently shook it until the smoke inside the glass turned azure and dreamy. He remembered the first time he had heard the prophecy as if it were yesterday. Albus, who had not been headmaster at the time, had brought him here shortly after he had begun his first year at Hogwarts; a prophecy could only be held by those about whom it was made, after all.

Just like before, a raspy male voice emitted from the glowing blue sphere, as if the speaker had been choked, and the words Severus had memorised long ago surrounded the still air, breathing life into it.

" _A millennium of loss for one,_

_A millennium of gain for another,_

_A truth that ought not to be meddled,_

_Is changed to suit a lover._

" _Before the curse is finished,_

_Only one can break the seal,_

_The Potter always wins until_

_The boy with Strength of Steel._

" _But, beware, upon these words,_

_Their love must bear a curse,_

_As closer he gets to end this bane,_

_In strife she will immerse._

" _So if you're able to find your courage,_

_Only then will you succeed,_

_Before his seventeenth year closes,_

_If not, they all shall bleed."_

Severus's heart tightened, as it always had done when he heard that prophecy, be it in the form of a crystal ball or simply his own head. It was time again. Dumbledore was as concerned as he.

Stowing the precious ball inside of his robes, Severus hurried out of the Ministry, being sure to act perfectly natural around members of staff he knew to be Death Eaters. Once safely out of sight, Severus apparated back to Hogwarts, having requested permission to access the grounds through apparition for the mission he was given. History was to repeat itself once more, and this time, it might be again merely too close.

* * *

Hermione Granger sat heavily down onto the leather seats of the small Hogwarts Express compartment she shared with her best friends, Harry and Ron. Outside the mahogany framed window was sheet rain, with colours and shapes only barely visible speeding by in the distance. This was regular weather for the time of year, and she amused herself thinking of the first-years that would be travelling across the Black Lake in the storm, the wild fascination in their eyes mixed with the chill of their bodies. Judging by the darkness of the sky and the small grumble building in her stomach, they were nearly there. The thrill of returning to Hogwarts had died down within an hour of boarding the train, and in the six hours since then, Hermione had just been attempting to find ways to entertain herself, mostly by reading up on the year's curriculum to ready herself for their classes. Not that she hadn't already read all of the books through twice over the summer anyway.

Instead, despite her own wishes, she felt her mind wandering to the dark possibilities that the year ahead had in store for the three of them. They'd never had a quiet year at Hogwarts, and now that Voldemort was officially, publicly back, it was increasingly unlikely that they would not have to face yet another life-threatening situation. There had been the Triwizard Tournament not two years ago, and before that a Basilisk had been roaming the school looking to kill. Also, Professor Quirrell who had a long-thought-dead murderer bonded to his body, Professor Umbridge who had been just an all-around nightmare, Professor Lockhart, the charming con-artist, and the fake Professor Moody who was a Death Eater in disguise. And then there was the three-headed dog, the dementors, an escaped convict and, oh yes, an actual dragon. Honestly, Hermione conceded that pretty much anything could happen to them in the following year and she would be completely unsurprised at this point. She sighed, accidentally drawing Harry's attention to herself.

"What's the matter?"

"It's nothing. I was just thinking… I wish we'd get lucky once in a while and have an average year at Hogwarts. You know, believe it or not, most students don't have their lives thrown into peril on a bi-annual basis." She was only half joking.

"Please, at Hogwarts? What _is_ an average year?" Harry replied.

"Yeah, maybe it'll be okay. Maybe the only thing we'll face that will put our lives at risk are the exams." Ron piped up. Hermione chuckled with them.

"I sincerely doubt the exam paper is going to leap off of the desk and strangle you, Ron." She smiled over her book cover.

"That's a shame. That means I'll have to actually take it."

Sometime during the entirety of the journey to their considerable second home, Harry, Ron and Hermione had changed from their home clothes and pulled their luggage down from the overhead shelves.

Only an hour later, the three Gryffindors were gathered around their house table in the Great Hall, waiting for Professor Mcgonagall to return with the first years to be sorted before the meal could begin. Hermione, unsurprisingly, was studying for Sixth Year Exams at the end of term. Quickly, the sorting was finished and the feast appeared in front of them. Ron and Harry immediately stuffed their faces with potatoes, Ron making a delighted pig-like grunting noise as he did. Hermione noticed this several times, huffed, rolled her eyes and returned to her book.

"Why do you insist on reading that book? It's still eight months until the exams," Harry, who thankfully did not have a mouth full of food like Ron would have done, asked with a slight frown.

"Is there something wrong with my work ethic? Am I disturbing your impending indigestion?" Hermione replied, a little annoyed. Shouldn't they already know her well enough by now?

"No, but there _is_ something wrong with studying all through the summer and then still studying during the feast when you get actually here. Just relax for one night, you're giving _me_ a headache, let alone yourself." Hermione lifted her book up and began reading again. Harry pushed the top of the book down under the table. "Please?" Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled all the same, closing her book and laying it on the table.

* * *

"Severus, you don't mean to tell me that you believe the process has already begun?" Albus Dumbledore leaned back in his seat in his large, unusual office and looked curiously at his colleague.

"Potter is the only living descendant in a hundred generations of cursed ancestors. The curse will, like all curses, do anything necessary to survive and procreate. Which means that unless Potter has some long lost Cousin Potter on his father's side that nobody knows about, he must be carrying the curse. It _always_ sets in before the age of seventeen, when the original cursed Potter fell in love. The story, as the curse decrees, is always exactly the same, Albus, you _know_ this. The eldest generation male Potter falls in love with a Gryffindor witch. A Slytherin pureblood of the same age will also fall in love with her. Potter will succeed at winning her heart. I know this more than anyone. It's the same story with different names, Albus, over and over and over again." The carefully unemotional charade fell away for a moment as the professor's voice broke. He turned to hide his pained expression from his old ally and recompose himself.

"I understand, Severus, what you are telling me. I know every time the curse is reborn in a new Potter, it multiplies in intensity and the near-death experiences for the people involved get more intense. The danger increases fractionally with each new generation. But even I cannot halt the curse now. We must wait for this so-called 'Boy of Steel' to appear and break it. Curse-breakers over centuries could not break it by force, and therefore we must assume that, given time, it will resolve itself as most bloodborne curses do."

"We cannot simply do nothing! Albus, you are far too intelligent to allow this curse to take its course and our students' lives along with it! Besides which, you cannot expect me to say nothing as you do! Think about the last victim, Albus… Lily Evans was the last Gryffindor who fell in love with a cursed Potter and look what happened! See what happened to her when we did nothing, as you suggest! She's _dead_ , Albus! It took four years, but she's dead! And Euphemia before her, and Christiana before her, and on and on. We cannot just sit here waiting for this ridiculous 'Steel Boy' to turn up and save yet another miserable girl from a horrific death. We must do something. I beg you, not again. No more deaths like Lily…" He quietened and trailed off.

"Severus, please. Control yourself." Albus's voice was gentle but firm as he observed his ally. "Your job is still far too important to be losing your head like this. There is nothing more I can do-"

Severus cut across him. "We both know that is not true, you are-"

"I know _exactly_ what I am, Snape, and I would thank you, after all these years, to trust me to _know what I am doing_." Albus's eyes flashed and his voice lost all of its gentle understanding. "We can only watch them closely and protect them where we can. But the first step we must take is find out who the unfortunate victims are. It's not incredibly difficult to take a guess at who the witch is, at least."

"Albus?" Severus's greasy eyebrows drew together. "You don't mean…"

"Look at them, Severus." The two professors peered over the table to the see the green-eyed boy-who-lived at the exact moment he pushed a certain bushy-haired muggleborn's book under the table as she smiled at him.

Severus's lip curled in distaste. "Hermione Granger. Of course."


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione was in a panic. She'd never been this late to a lesson before, including in third year to Professor Trelawney's Divination class, ridiculous as it had been. Her chocolate brown, curly hair frizzed from air seeping through it as she ran down the almost completely empty corridor. She checked the muggle watch on her wrist. 10:00. Being late was beyond the boundary for Hermione Granger, notorious bookworm and teacher's pet. She moved her legs faster and faster until her thighs burned, the majority of her well-organised brain concentrating on maintaining her perfect attendance record.

At least, that _was_ her focus until someone interrupted her dash to the classroom by ignorantly placing their body in her path of well-intended destruction. It seemed that slamming with full force into the hard figure of the tall boy managed to knock her lesson to the less imperative section of her mind. The new replacement was -

"OW!" She frowned as her frame hit the cool stone floor, bottom end first. The large volumes she had been carrying were thrown out of her arms, and coincidentally, onto the obstacle's foot.

"Ugh!" An unmistakably sarcastic Slytherin groaned, half bent over from clutching his toe. "Carrying books like that around all day, you should have arms like a bodybuilder!"

She said nothing, but shot him a dirty look all the same, while gathering her books and what was left of her dignity from the floor.

"Watch your speed, Mudblood, and maybe you wouldn't end up on your arse." He glared at her as she rose rather ungracefully from the ground, hauling her comically large books with her.

"Watch your mouth, ferret, and maybe you'll still have an arse to end up on." She retorted, side-stepping him. He looked indignantly at her, and she shot him the sweetest smile she could muster without inducing her gag reflex.

"I'm terrified, Granger, really. Shaking in my designer dragon-hide boots." He brushed a speck of dirt off his uniform uncaringly.

"Whatever, Malfoy. I don't have time for this, move." She pushed past him, carrying on at a not-quite-run, checking her watch again.

" _Not_ so fast, Miss Granger." Hermione felt she would rather have melted to the floor than turn around to face her least favourite professor. Snape strode up the corridor towards her and Malfoy, and Hermione could feel her face flush as Malfoy's grin grew wider. "Your schedule, please." He held out an expectant hand, and Hermione, still rattled from her infuriating encounter, took half a second to dig it out from between the hard covers of her books.

"I'm supposed to be in Professor McGonagall's-"

"Then do explain to me why you have decided that her lesson is not important enough for you to be there on time along with the rest of her students? Does Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age, no longer feel the need to attend classes in order to pass her exams?"

"I was just on my way, but Malfoy-"

"It is now precisely four minutes past ten, and therefore to ensure that this does not happen again, I think a detention for each tardy minute is appropriate, plus twenty points from Gryffindor, don't you agree, Miss Granger?" Snape's eyebrow arched, inviting her to contradict him, but despite her fury at Malfoy once again receiving no punishment, she bit her tongue.

"Yes, sir." She glared at the ground.

A door opened to the left of her, and Hermione felt she'd never been more grateful to see Professor Sinistra's face in all her life.

"Is there a problem, Professor Snape?" She asked in her everyday brusque manner.

"Not at all, Aurora. I was just giving Miss Granger here a detention for her tardiness."

Professor Sinistra's dark eyes appraised the scene. "And for Mr Malfoy? I assume he is also out of bounds during lesson time?" Hermione almost smirked to mirror the one that had just dropped off Malfoy's face, and Snape could barely conceal his chagrin.

"Yes, yes, very well. Miss Granger, Mr Malfoy." He ground out through his teeth. "Saturday, six o'clock sharp, in my office." Professor Sinistra nodded curtly and returned to her office as Snape offered one last look of distaste in her direction, turned his back on the two students and strode back up the corridor in his distinctly bat-like manner without another word.

Hermione, with the outrage still fresh in her veins, gathered all her self-control to say nothing, and shot Malfoy one last furious look before marching past him towards McGonagall's classroom.

 _Perfect_ , she fumed. _A Saturday night in detention with only Malfoy and Snape for company_. _Damned ferret_.

* * *

Later on that day, after the rest of the classes had finished, however excruciatingly slow for the boys and ridiculously quickly for Hermione, the three companions made their way towards the common room to drop off their books and discard their school robes. They had a while before dinner was served, so Harry suggested taking a walk by the lake for a while. Ron got caught halfway towards the lake by his girlfriend, Lavender Brown, and told them he'd catch up with them, for which Harry and Hermione were very grateful; they'd already seen too much of Lavender and Ron's public displays of affection in the corridors that day.

Hermione's blood was still boiling from her run in with Malfoy that morning. How dare he just assume that she ran into him on purpose? _Of course, Malfoy, the exact thoughts running through my incredibly devious mind were: Wow, wouldn't it be really funny to run directly into Malfoy's body, drop books on his toe and fall on my bottom? Of course, just dropping books on his toe next time might be a worthwhile thought…_ She continued with her mental chuntering, considering all methods of physical violence available to her as the found a comfortable spot of grass under a tree to sit down on.

"Hey, what's wrong? You've been disturbingly quiet all day!" Harry flopped down onto the grass next to her, having noticed the glower that she was sending towards anything that happened to enter into her line of vision.

"Malfoy." She said simply, not trusting herself to tell him the full story without huffing or punching something.

"What happened?" Harry furrowed his eyebrows. She shot him a look.

"He's just… he's just… _Malfoy_. There's no word strong enough for him."

"I know, I gave up trying to understand him six years ago." Harry smiled at her sympathetically, but she ignored his attempt to cheer her up.

"Thanks, Harry, that'll be really helpful when I'm in detention with Malfoy and Snape on Saturday evening. What would I do without you?" She sulked.

"Ah, you'd be lost." He replied, smiling at her once more. "Wait, this Saturday?"

"Yes, and the next three as well!" Hermione threw the book she'd been half-heartedly trying to read onto the ground in front of her and put her head in her arms.

"No! You're going to miss my Quidditch tryout!" Harry said, losing his ability to make light of the situation.

" _What a shame…"_ Hermione said under her breath.

"You're missing the Quidditch tryouts?" Ron joined the conversation sitting down on the other side of Harry and looking crestfallen.

"Snape gave her detention on Saturday. With _Malfoy_." Harry added.

"He only gave Malfoy the detention too because Professor Sinistra saw him showing blatant favouritism." Hermione brooded.

Ron used a bad word that Hermione was too annoyed even to berate him for. "Snape's been really smug since he got the DADA job. Prick."

"Sorry, Hermione. I'd ask why, but I think any detention given by Snape is for pretty obvious reasons."

"It couldn't be because he hates us, could it?" Hermione guessed sarcastically. Harry put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him for a brief moment, before mentally pulling herself out of the gloomy attitude she'd had all day and forced herself to think of other things on her mind.

"Anyway, you never told us what actually happened to you on the train? I know you missed the carriages, but there must have been a reason." Hermione inquired.

"Same as you. Malfoy. He knew I was watching him when I went to listen in to his conversation with his mates on the train." Harry flushed a little, embarrassed that he had been outsmarted by Malfoy.

"Malfoy _again_? Harry, I told you-" Hermione began, before Harry interrupted.

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have been there. Anyway, he froze me and left me on the train. If it hadn't been for Tonks, I'd still be there." Harry concluded.

"Well, you shouldn't have gone snooping around then. We don't know that he's involved with any of this Death Eater nonsense, and whether his father is or not is a completely different matter. He might be the biggest git in the history of Hogwarts, but we've got no proof he's actually evil." Hermione gave her usual fair, if very aggravated, judgement and turned to scoff at Ron disapprovingly, who was throwing stones at the single tentacle of the Giant Squid that was floating above the surface. She pretended not to hear Harry mutter mutinously in response.

* * *

Albus and Severus watched intensely through the tower window at the three silhouettes down near the lake below, glancing at each other in concern.

"Albus, please. Isn't there anything we can do?" Severus asked his superior.

"I'm sorry, Severus, the curse breakers are putting every effort into it, but this curse is generations old. It was so subtle a curse when it was cast, that by the time anybody noticed, it had become too powerful to be broken with a simple solution. This may take months. The intricacy of it is almost beautiful. Tragic, but beautiful." Albus remained curiously focused on the students.

"Beautiful as it may be, people are going to end up dead. Children, in fact, knowing Potter's hero complex. Months may be too late! You cannot just be an objective observer!" Severus turned away from him.

"Well, as it so happens, Severus, you have not been the objective observer that I asked you to be thus far." Albus raised an eyebrow. "Miss Granger will be attending a detention on Saturday, so Professor Sinistra tells me?"

Severus straightened his back defensively. "She was late for class, hurling insults in the corridor, I had every right to give her a detention, I am her professor-"

"You were not the professor in charge of her at that moment, that prerogative belonged to Minerva, Severus. You were, however, the professor in charge of Mr Malfoy."

"I also gave him a detention. I do not see how my chosen punishment of Draco Malfoy has any relevance to the current situation." Severus sniffed.

"I think you do, Severus. Or, at least, you should." Albus said simply.

Severus was thrown for a long minute. "You… think that Draco Malfoy somehow has involvement with this prophecy?" He said slowly.

Albus looked at him wordlessly.

"You think that Draco Malfoy is the new… me?" Severus clutched the windowsill until his knuckles were white.

"I believe so, Severus, yes." Albus studied his former student's face as he processed the news.

Severus's voice was carefully controlled. "What makes you believe that to be true?"

"Well, the boy competing with Potter for the love of the chosen girl is always in Slytherin House. He always has deep, usually familial ties with Dark Magic. And the most significant factor, of course: that he always has, forgive me, an antagonistic past with the Potter boy in question."

"All of the Slytherins have an antagonistic past with Potter!" Severus burst out. "He's an arrogant boy with mediocre intellect, unexceptional talent and a hero complex, just like his father before him! Stupid, self-serving Potters always putting people in danger to make themselves happy! If the first damned Potter hadn't cast this curse-"

"Severus, calm yourself." Albus pulled himself up to his full, and considerable, height. His eyes seemed to darken as he spoke again. "Hatred of the Potters will not help us now. If you cannot remain objective towards Harry Potter, then you will simply remain _silent_ instead. Am I understood, Professor Snape?"

Severus did not reply but restrained himself. He wordlessly looked down again at the son of the man he despised, knowing nothing more could be said until more answers were made apparent.

"All will become clear soon enough." Albus's tone was once again gentle. He inspected the scene below again, and Severus could have sworn he saw the hint of the familiar knowing twinkle in his eye.

* * *

**Remember to review and tell me what you think!**

**\- EllaPenny**


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